COLUMBUS - Ohio's attorney general is suing the founder and leaders of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, aiming to recoup millions of dollars in public funding that flowed to the massive, now-defunct online school.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday names ECOT founder William Lager and his two companies that provided management and curriculum services.
Attorneys representing the companies in ECOT matters didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The lawsuit also names five ECOT officials, including the superintendent and treasurer.
It targets Lager's profits from his companies' ECOT contracts. It also goes after money paid under alleged improper contracts, as well as funding received by ECOT that wasn't justified by tallies of student participation.
The school of 11,000-plus students closed in January after the state started recouping nearly $80 million in disputed funding.
Attorney General DeWine's action to sue the founders of ECOT didn't stop Democrats from blaming him and other Republicans for the scandal. DeWine is running for governor against Democrat Richard Cordray.
On Tuesday, Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper and a group of Democrats running for state offices aired their ECOT grievances in front of the Cincinnati Public Schools Education Center in Cincinnati's Clifton neighborhood.
The Republican-led Ohio General Assembly failed to put into place checks and balances to prevent this, Pepper said. Pepper also pointed out ECOT donated more than $2 million to state lawmakers and politicians over the years, nearly all of them Republican.
Ohio Democrats hope the ECOT will help them win statewide races, including the gubernatorial race.
They've launched a statewide campaign in all 88 Ohio counties detailing the cost of ECOT to the local school districts. Using statistics from left-leaning think tank Innovation Ohio, the Ohio Democratic Party calculated public schools in Hamilton County lost $31 million in revenue from ECOT siphoning off students and resources.
"We want to make sure as people think about this issue, it'll be talked about a lot over the next 77 days, that this is not just an issue for the statehouse, where it started," Pepper said. "The cost has been paid all over the state."
